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James Koutoulas hasn't slept much in the last month—since Oct. 31 to be exact.

That's the day that brokerage firm MF Global filed for bankruptcy, and the day something unprecedented happened in the futures industry—segregated customer funds at a futures commissions merchant had vanished and no one knew what had happened to them. A pinnacle law of Wall Street had been broken.

The events that followed have played across news headlines in the last month, but consistently in the backdrop has been Koutoulas—an enduring presence at bankruptcy trials and Congressional hearings, a knowledgeable voice cited within the pages of major news publications and a stoic figure that represents over 8,000 wronged MF Global clients, pro-bono.

But Koutoulas, who is the co-founder of the Commodity Customers Coalition, talks about sacrificing time, sleep and the well-being of his own business in good nature.

"It's such a great feeling of responsibility and the last thing I ever what to do is let a single person down," he told Business Insider. "If I don't get to sleep for a while, that's okay—as long as I do a good job, and I take care of my people."

QUICK TO ACT

Koutoulas, who runs commodity trading advisory firm Typhon Capital Management in Chicago, saw about 50 of his clients affected in the aftermath of the discovery of the fund shortfall — when MF Global Trustee James Giddens immediately froze all customer accounts and no one one was allowed to make withdrawals. Altogether, Koutoulas' customers had roughly $55 million held up at MF Global.

It started simply—reaching out to his network of futures industry and legal professionals, contacting the media and planning group phone calls for bewildered MF Global clients in need of information.

Now, in less than a month, the group that started with 100 voices over a conference call has turned into an organized coalition of 8,000 plus customers with the sole goal of making former MF Global clients whole again, It's now known as the Commodity Customers Coalition, CCC.

"People saw the [media coverage in the NYT] and that got the momentum going," Koutoulas said of the formative days of CCC.

COMMODITY CUSTOMERS COALITION

The organization has come a long way and now has 8,000 members. They've gone from from baffled customers with frozen bank accounts to this moment, — when the bankruptcy judge has approved a motion for all clients to get 72 cents on the dollar of their accounts back.

But obviously Koutoulas does not make up the whole CCC. He started his work with the effort with Sam Tenenbaum, his former professor at Northwestern Law School who runs an Investor Protection Center, and John Roe of BTR Trading Group, who had over 1,000 clients affected by MF Global's bankruptcy.

Koutoulas has brought his business partner and sister, Diana and an unpaid Typhon intern ("Patrick") into the loop. Jim Mayer, an MF Global customer with money locked up, has become the media point person on a volunteer basis. There are also three legal counsels, who are working for Koutoulas at a decreased fee—he uses donations from what the 8,000 clients can offer to pay the lawyers.

"We've got a lot of volunteers, and I remember one night we had a packed office... we ordered up Thai food and were working till midnight, just trying to get a handle on what the various issues were," Tenenbaum said of CCC at its inception.

PROGRESS DESPITE EXPERIENCE

Koutoulas went to law school and is admitted to the Illinois bar, but he's actually never formally practiced law. He studied law. He wanted to run his own business—and since he hated lawyers, he wanted to be able to do his own legal work.

"I've never even taken a class on bankruptcy," he said.

But, he's held his own in bankruptcy court against the judge, and the results of that are clear now that MF Global clients will be getting more than half their money back.

But it's more than just the money. Koutoulas prides himself on turning the trustee, Giddens, to CCC's side. Giddens had originally been antagonized by MF Global clients for wanting to drag out the bankruptcy process, but has now publicly stated that customers should be first priority when it comes out doling out MF Global assets.

"I think he got things really turned around... the trustee seems to very much be on our side these days. And that was not the case initially," said David Healy, a member of the CCC who has millions of dollars frozen at the brokerage.

WORK ETHIC

Courtesy of Diana KoutoulasJames with his younger brother (Nick) and sister (Diana)

With great responsibility, also comes great sacrifice. Koutoulas still runs Typhon, but only dedicates about an hour per day to that work, pushing investor meetings and sales planning to weekends. Everyday, he wakes up at 6 a.m., goes through over 500 e-mails concerning MF Global and CCC, gives numerous media interviews, talks to MF Global clients and prepares for upcoming trials.

Standing at about six-feet tall, Koutoulas and has a light-hearted sense of humor — though these days his favorite hobby these days seem to be finding as many foul ways to describe former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine as possible.

And that isn't the only thing that's changed in his life since MF Global went bankrupt. Koutoulas lives in Chicago, but he's subleted an apartment in New York for the time being, not that he gets much chance to use it. Koutoulas said he's averaged about three hours of sleep per night in the last month. On Friday he told Business Insider he had slept 12 hours the whole week. He also says he mainly subsists on cereal and milk, and jokingly laments about how he hasn't been able to go to the gym. "It shows on TV!"

Koutoulas managed to make it home for Thanksgiving though, and during the holiday weekend he read 2,000 emails and gave six interviews. Obviously that didn't leave time for much of a visit, but he'll be back. He says he needs to go home by next week so he can celebrate his birthday—December 20, when he'll be turning 31.

"I'm running on vapors, energy-wise," Koutoulas said. "But when you've got people telling you 'I'm a single mom and I'm going to lose my house if it's not for your help,' you forget about about being tired, and you work—you get the message out."